Talk:I Want to Go Home! (Sesame Street)
Character Lists Danny took out the character list on this book. Are we not listing characters in books? -- Ken (talk) 04:19, September 17, 2009 (UTC) :We've never had any discussion about taking out such lists, the only restriction (some time ago) being that they be listed simply, and not with asterisks before each entry to take up space, and that it's redundant if the book, say, only features Bert and Ernie or somesuch and they're mentioned in the summary. That doesn't apply here. I think Danny may have just removed it because he thought it looked sloppy in this particular instance, but the lists help, especially when filling out the character bibliography pages. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:07, September 29, 2009 (UTC) :: I think character lists are great for some things, but for a storybook like this, it's pretty pointless. It's just a list of main characters, plus Granny Bird, who's already linked on the page. It would be better to have a longer, more detailed synopsis that includes mention of all the characters in the book. Not that I went and wrote that, though. -- Danny (talk) 21:14, September 29, 2009 (UTC) :::I don't think it hurts at all if it's a short list as long as it doesn't completely relist the characters. That was our only standard in the past, thus Ken's confustion. Though if there's a way to rewrite the synopsis and mention the others, I'd be fine with dumping the short list (I don't have the book myself). I just think it's better to wait than to throw the info away. I assume by now, since I know you've been diligent on this, the info is *probably* on the character pages, but if it's one place and not the other, regardless of format, it can confuse readers. There was also some mysterious "Wally" in the book, which either in list or synopsis, needs explanation, since a normal link goes to the wrong guy. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 21:36, September 29, 2009 (UTC) ::::Well, it was just Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Oscar, etc -- major characters. We don't have "book appearances" lists for those characters, because they're in everything -- we only list books for second-tier characters where it's a more manageable list, like Mr. Snuffleupagus. ::::And then there was Wally, which was linked to Wally from the Valentine show. I have the book; I'll check to see who that is... -- Danny (talk) 22:08, September 29, 2009 (UTC) :::::Aw, turns out I don't have this after all. I had it confused with It's Easy!, which has a similarly distressed Big Bird on the cover. :) :::::Maybe somebody else who has the book can clear up who "Wally" is? -- Danny (talk) 19:56, October 4, 2009 (UTC) ::::::Wally was a boy Big Bird made friends with on the beach. He has his own special cave, which brings Big Bird to telling him about Snuffy. They become friends from there, doing things like playing catch in the water, digging in the sand, and sharing a popsicle every day. Garrettk41 20:21, October 4, 2009 (UTC) :::::::Great, thanks! I'll add that to the article. -- Danny (talk) 20:39, October 4, 2009 (UTC) ::::::::That helps a lot, but I still don't like omitting useful info intentionally (since Ernie and Bert are major but they're not necessarily in every book, after all). So I'm adding them back as an "Also appearing" sentence for now, which I think is slightly less messy than the list and works until someone can clarify their participation or if it was background cameos or something. That's probably the best way to handle these situations, actually, since it's what we've tended to do with, say, a guest appearance on a TV show by Muppets where Kermit or Gonzo are the stars but it's also worth noting background figures and a seperate "Characters" heading is messy. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 02:02, October 5, 2009 (UTC)